Heads-up, Dan. It's old news. I've been complaining about this for years, about the rah-rah reviews by Apple-sponsored media in all the tier-one newspapers in the country. (You know, the guys who didn't even know that iPhone 1.0 couldn't sync with Outlook correctly because their Apple handlers ensure they only used it with a Mac.) This situation has always been bad, horrible. But I guess it's finally coming to light because Apple is now a much bigger and more influential company now.

Whatever. Welcome to the party.

The media's coverage of Apple bites. Here's why.

The worst thing about the coverage of the Steve Jobs health fiasco at Apple is not only that much of the media failed to pursue the story ... the media went beyond just ignoring the story and actually helped Apple tamp down the story, which kept bubbling up, usually on blogs.

It's one thing for PR flacks to tell lies. That is, after all, what they get paid to do. But it's another thing for the media to join in on the action.

The fact is, in the eyes of the media, Apple is the corporate equivalent of Barack Obama—a company that can do no wrong. Even in Silicon Valley, where much of the press corps are pretty much glorified cheerleaders (think of all those slobbering cover stories about the Google guys) Apple's kid-gloves treatment stands out. Reporters don't just overlook Apple's faults; they'll actually apologize for them, or rationalize them away. Ever seen reporters clapping and cheering at a press conference? Happens all the time at Apple events.

Thank you. Exactly. It's disgusting. And every time one of those so-called journalists actually breaks out into applause during a product pitch, they should simply be asked to leave. Eventually, we'll be left with the ones who aren't witless boobs.

Reporters clapping at a Microsoft press conference? Maybe. Somewhere. But I hear/see a lot more jeers than cheers in the Microsoft press rooms and events where I’ve been present than I noticed the couple of times I’ve been at an Apple event.

Exactly right. So much for the benefits of "super secret" access on the Windows side.

But back to Dan. Because he brings up the most recent example of the media's inability to think clearly when it comes to Apple: Steve Jobs is clearly sick. And yet no-one has the cajones to just admit it.

Anyone with half a brain and pair of eyes could look at Steve Jobs last June and know that this was not a healthy 53-year-old man. Yet for months Apple fanboys and Apple's friends in the media have bent themselves into pretzels in search of ways to argue that he's in fine health.

Yep. And the side effect of this is that when people do mention it--as I have--you get these antagonistic emails from Apple fanatics wondering what the frick your problem is. I mean, how dare you question Apple or His Holiness, Mr. Jobs?

It's a quite a little world you people have invented for yourself. It really is.

But then, this has been my issue with the more fanatical corners of the Mac community for a long, long time. Here it is, laid out nice and simple:

Some of my colleagues in the media have made a Faustian bargain with Apple. In exchange for super-special access ... they tacitly agree not to criticize the company or even to say things it doesn't like.

All I ask is that the press approach Apple with the same toughness, relentless objectivity, skepticism, and unshakable rigor that they do with, say, Barack Obama! I mean, we can't have the press corps being a bunch of fawning lapdogs.

>>In exchange for super-special access ... they tacitly agree not to criticize the company or even to say things it doesn't like.<<
Thats a very serious charge, and most likely why the strategic word 'tacitly' was placed in there.
Nevertheless, Walt, David and Ars have all crtiticized Apple and celebrated over their competitors. This is all just sour grapes.
The Internet makes a wide variety of opinions open today.
OT: You guys should read the profile of Tim Cook. I suspect Apple will be OK. http://money.cnn.com/2008/11/09/technology/cook_apple.fortune/index.htm
OT2: I wonder if Paul will mention the just released NPD numbers: 3rd place for the 360:
http://technologizer.com/2009/01/15/nintendo-dominates-08-in-sales-figur...

"The fact is, in the eyes of the media, Apple is the corporate equivalent of Barack Obama"
This is exactly what I was saying yesterday, and to me it is sickening on both levels. Jobs and Obama are merely men...not saviors. Jobs has at least been a visionary leader in the computer and CE industries. Obama has done nothing to deserve the worship that he gets. He has been in campaign mode for at least 5 years. The real test is coming. Biden, himself, said as much.
Enough politics...Great commentary, Paul.
--tayme

Oh, and if Apple plays games with the press, so does MS. From MJF's post:
>>I’ve also had times and circumstances when I’ve been blocked and banned — either because of things I wrote and/or fears about what I might write. (For an example of the latter, I can point to my book Microsoft 2.0, for which I was granted no interviews by anyone at an executive level at Microsoft. Luckily, there are still some folks who work at Microsoft who believed that talking to someone who is making an honest effort to tell a story was worth risking the wrath of those wanting to cut off all information from the inside.)<<

Ars? iTarts have been trying to force Ars along with Mossy, Pogue et. all into the "objective' scions narrative only to be ridiculed.
This meme cycle is ending and the next decade will be quite different...get used to it.

"Some of my colleagues in the media have made a Faustian bargain with Apple. In exchange for super-special access ... they tacitly agree not to criticize the company or even to say things it doesn't like."
Because that NEVER happens with any other company. For God sake, get real: it happens with game reviews, movie reviews, and I place bets that it also happens to MS products also.
Anyone who thinks anything is entirely objective is stupid to begin with

One bad "journalist" defending another. (Paul has also defended Enderle!)
This,
"Some of my colleagues in the media have made a Faustian bargain with Apple. In exchange for super-special access ... they tacitly agree not to criticize the company or even to say things it doesn't like.
Remember that the next time you read an Apple product review."
Is an assertion by a man who makes his living writing about Microsoft products and has somehow let that evolve into a visceral hatred for all things Apple.
You might look here
http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/19741/
to see this shining example of "Journalism" in action. Banned from CNBC.

tayme,
I tend to agree with your statements regarding both Obama and Apple and, in fact, I made that comparison yesterday.
FWIW, I like some of Apple's products. I also like Obama's choice of cabinet. But in both cases, you never know what to expect based on the media's coverage.

"This is Dan Lyons?? Mr. FSJ himself? I never thought I'd read something like this from HIM!"
You do realize that everything he writes under the FSJ handle was actually in sarcasm, right?
As a follow up to yesterday's article:
@robertsjoe: "Of course Linux is the preferred (and superior) option for server side"
It's better than OS X Server anyway.
My take:
Steve Jobs on iPhone 1.0: "It's REVolutionary!" (emphasis on the "rev")
Media: "Ooo, ahhh." *blog, blog, blog*
Stockholders: *muted applause.* *sell*
Steve Jobs on iPhone 2.0 (aka 3G): "It's like the first one, but now faster."
Media: "O RLY? WYCKED! KTHXBYE!" *blog, blog, blog*
Stockholders: "What is this sh*t? Same ol', same ol'." *sell, sell, sell*
So if the first one was so good, why don't more people still have it?

"Banned from CNBC."
According to CNBC, that's not so.
Apparently, you're right. Here's what the jackass himself has to say about it.
"From what I was told after the show, it's highly unlikely that I'll ever be invited back. (For what it's worth, after the show I apologized to Goldman and others at CNBC for being so rude. And the next day, a CNBC spokesman said that I have not been "banned" from the network.)"
I'm a bit tired of the Jobs health issue. Let him go get well. Paul using this as the latest cudgel to beat up Apple is vile, below disgusting.

chuckb84
I am sure you don't think fibbing to the investors about the health prospects of the Dear Leader amounts to anything? You can't buy that kind of privacy excuse when you attribute all the success (or a previous lack thereof) of the company to one man, and not expect people to demand transparency on any issues that might keep the Dear Leader from turning it all up to 11 at the job. Pointing this bizarre concession afforded to Apple makes Dan and Paul somehow vile and below disgusting?

While it's sad that Jobs' health has become such a big issue, don't blame Paul and Dan Lyons for it; blame Apple or at least Apple's board, which is supposed to represent the shareholders. What the iFanboys don't realize is that shareholders have a right to this information, especially in a company that's run like Apple is. Apple is a one man show or at least that's the appearance the company gives out.

I wonder if this is all an agenda from MS? Apple gets all the best press and MS gets kicked all the time (so they should for the mediocrity). So their minions (like this and Mary's blog) tow the company agenda. Like that episode of Windows Weekly with Paul and Mary. God, two peas in a pod talking up the Apple Tax. They just got their memorandum from Microsoft about the "Apple Tax" and were on the march, shouting it from the bandwagon like there was no tomorrow. People's ears bled listening to that podcast it was so hard to listen to.

"Some of my colleagues in the media have made a Faustian bargain with Apple. In exchange for super-special access ... they tacitly agree not to criticize the company or even to say things it doesn't like."
As opposed to Wincentric columnists who are so frustrated that they're not privy to the inner machinations of Apple the way they are Microsoft that they whine and cry like little children about how unfair life is.
"Paul using this as the latest cudgel to beat up Apple is vile, below disgusting."
Amen.

"Reporters clapping at a Microsoft press conference? Maybe. Somewhere. But I hear/see a lot more jeers than cheers in the Microsoft press rooms and events where I’ve been present than I noticed the couple of times I’ve been at an Apple event."
Did you ever stop to think that MS is just hated by some that's why they jeer? Nothing to do with Apple, more to do with how bad the company is in many people's eyes. Maybe these people are tired of the Microsoft Communism. They control the market so a lot of people are forced to use their mediocre products. Why? Because The Part dictates it. And some people don't like it. Nothing to do with Apple.

"Atheism is such a poor way to live."
Ouch....so my disbelief in the invisible cloud being and the superiroity of shiny AAPL products signals my woeful existence.
I shall endeavor to reach the pinnacle of iExistence on my journey...

In summary:
Dan Lyons, Mary Jo Foley and Paul Thurrott all confirm what we've all known for years - Apple lies and has lots of people who happily repeat whatever lies they're told.
And the Mac faithful once again tell us how lovely Emperor Steve's new clothes look.
No suprises except that Dan Lyons and CNBC actually brought what we all knew out in the open. And Paul and Mary Jo had the guts to back him up.
(I guess we know who will and won't be getting early access to Apple's new products)

Actually, he may have a serious condition that could even be life threatening if untreated, and could easily recover with treatment and rest. Therefore, Apple would not be lying. In fact, since no one actually knows, then no one is correct about this, at least until it's over. If Paul, Dan and Mary Jo are correct, we will find out more sooner than later. If they are wrong, some of the above applies. Either way, since nothing is confirmed this post doesn't prove much, except that there are just as many Apple haters as their are lemmings in the media. BOTH ARE WRONG!!!!!

The iTards have descended.
Recalibrate those reading glasses, put down the iKoolAid jar, and read the articles on the blog. ALL THE ARTICLES. Not just those that have the word Apple, iPod, iPhone, Mac and Jobs in them.

It's not Apple's fault. Who wouldn't like to manipulate the media? I'm sure every company tries it. Celebrities and politicians do it too. Apple was probably able to take it a notch higher, but then, then media was willing to play along. The media should be blamed for allowing itself to be manipulated the way it was.

@Waethorn - It could be that at the time that the "hormone imbalance" news came out, that was the diagnosis...more testing, new diagnosis. It is Jobs' decision on whether to release the full details of his condition, whatever it is.
--tayme

DRWAM
It really isn't about Steve Jobs' health. It's about Apple's secrecy and media manipulation in general. (or as Dan Lyons put it in his article: "Apple is also pretty good at spreading disinformation and freezing out people they don't like. Imagine what it might be like if the Church of Scientology went into the consumer electronics business, and you'd have a pretty good picture of how Apple operates.")
The health issue and the related possible disclosure law violations are just bringing to light what's been true about Apple press coverage for a very long time now.

@mikegalos - "It's about Apple's secrecy and media manipulation in general."
Partially true...it is also about the love affair that the media has with all things Apple. They are the darling...much like Obama is the savior. At least Apple has a history that is known...
--tayme

The thing is that Steve Jobs is a bully and if you bad mouth one of his creations, he'll beat you up by not giving you access to his latest product. Simple as that.
"The fact is, in the eyes of the media, Apple is the corporate equivalent of Barack Obama—a company that can do no wrong."
I think S'aint (as in saint ain't) Obama and his worshipers will take this to a whole new level and will actually make Apple jealous! LOL Oy.

I guess it doesn't take long for fame success to go to one's head - especially when one hasn't had the time to cope with it. It leads to a feeling of invincibility and an "I can do no wrong" attitude. I guess that's true of companies as well. Failures are humbling. My guess is, if it hadn't been for the DOJ case against Microsoft, it would've been a different company. Apple, even though it's been there for a long time and has seen failure once before, behaves like an upstart. The media loves such stories!

Or in a shorter form:
Dan Lyons calls out the iCabal.
Mary Jo Foley and Paul Thurrott confirm what Dan Lyons said.
The iCabal and their hapless followers spring to defend lies and manipulation in a desperate attempt to not look as gullible as they actually are.

For a windows blog, you do like to talk about Apple a lot. It borders on obsession. I'm sure there are as many Apple posts as Microsoft ones.
I see there is another new big windows virus on the rampage, care to talk about that one?

@mikegalos: "Mary Jo Foley and Paul Thurrott confirm what Dan Lyons said.
The iCabal and their hapless followers spring to defend lies and manipulation in a desperate attempt to not look as gullible as they actually are."
Mary and Paul, the Drone Twins.
"spring to defend"!? Aren't you the pot calling the kettle black. What do you think you do all the time on here? You're just as much of a Microsoft apologist as Paul, Mary and the rest of them.
There are no lies. No manipulation. It's a matter of Microsofties having a hard time of not being liked. Why? Because the company they follow is evil and is a convicted monopolist.
Thank God for the EU pushing Microsoft to stop their anti-competitive practices.

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